I also was at the start of the Dakar rally, and at the finnish. It was really hard to get good shots with a DSLR because of the hordes of people were stretching out their p & s or cellphones effectively blocking your chance of using the viewfinder properly.

You absolutly right Smirf , I was located to 300 metres after the Start Line and I was able to take pictures without fences ,but the compositions was always complicated , watch these samples ,hope you like it